No, Not All Cultures are Equal and it is Imperative We Understand This

In the 2012 primaries, the Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann made the statement that all cultures are not equal and should not be treated as such. She was commenting on the startling rise of Muslim extremism on our own shores that has since carried with it multiple terrorist attacks totaling hundreds of casualties.

Bachman -already quite unpopular for being a Christian tea-partier -was raked over the coals for that remark and shamed ruthlessly.

More recently, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) repeated the thought, telling a Washington Post reporter, “The idea of multiculturalism, that every culture is equal — that’s not objectively true.”

This has of course elicited passionate responses from outraged social justice warriors who don’t see American culture as a safe haven, but as an evil that needs to be reigned in. There are those who believe that human beings are basically all the same, that we are basically all good at heart and those of us who aren’t good are simply acting out from some sort of racial/gender-binary/societal-pressure induced PTSD.

With the current refugee crisis and the terrorist attack at OSU by a Somali Muslim extremist, this question of “culture” is coming up again. The left has credited Trump’s rise to the Oval Office as some kind of backlash against other cultures, as if all the white people in America suddenly remembered they’re racists after electing Obama twice. Anyone who dares express any kind of hesitation at the idea of bringing in hundreds of thousands of unvetted refugees from cultures far different from our own is immediately labeled a racist by the Thought Police (an off-shoot of the Dept. of Grammar Nazis).

This is all just emotional foot stomping, meant to signal the virtue of a person while drowning out reasonable discussion.

Culture isn’t race. Culture is tied to many things. There is gay culture, gamer culture, millennial culture. Your office has a culture. Ever worked or lived in Washington D.C.? There is a definite culture to Capitol Hill. California culture is very different from Indiana culture. Asian culture is nothing at all like Caribbean culture.

All of these examples I’ve just given are pretty innocuous. Morally speaking they may indeed all be equal. However, what about cultures that behead those who participate in gay culture? Are they equal to the gay culture? Do you see what I’m getting at here?

When you drop people into a culture of freedom from a culture where there are is no law enforcement, no court system and no freedom for women you can’t expect them to absorb the culture of freedom simply because their location changed. Culture is assimilated, not magically bestowed. Bringing in thousands of unvetted refugees from war-torn, lawless hellholes and expecting them to suddenly respect the culture of freedom without having to do any work to understand it is ridiculously naive…and dangerous, as the OSU stabber proves.

Racism is bad. If you don’t hate racism, you’re dumb. Wanting to more carefully select and assimilate those moving here from oppressive cultures is smart and compassionate.

As an American I will not share moral equivalency with other cultures that promote some of the most barbaric, heartless practices towards mankind. I will not share it with other cultures that tolerate throwing acid on little girls going to school. We are not “equal” in our worldview. It isn’t just a matter of “tolerance.” We do not hold humans and freedom in the same light, so no…that culture is not equal to mine, as an American.

If your culture promotes or tolerates old men marrying child brides, your culture is not equal to ours.

If your culture stones women when they have the audacity to get raped it is not equal to ours.

If your culture forces women to marry their rapists as an alternative to being stoned, your culture is not equal to ours.

If your culture welcomes the idea that anyone who draws a picture of your god is a blasphemer and deserves to be murdered, it is not equal to ours.

If your culture is so amenable to wife-beating that a local news crew does a story on make-up techniques to cover bruising, it is not equal to ours.

If your culture believes that a woman should be forced by law to cover every inch of her body so as not arouse the passions of a man, it is not equal to ours.

If your culture believes that disabled children should be euthanized or left to die after birth, it is not equal to ours.

If your culture believes that you are not entitled to the fruits of your own labor and your only purpose is to support a murderous dictator living in wealth and excess, it is not equal to ours.

If your culture believes in strapping down a 12 year old girl, cutting off her clitoris and sewing her vagina shut to prevent her from becoming a “slut” it is not equal to ours.

If your culture enforces homosexuality laws by throwing gays off of rooftops, it is not equal to ours.